Sunday, May 16, 2010

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 2: Posts and Insulators

How to set up a portable electric fence - cheap and simple. Part 2: Posts and Insulators

Posts come in different styles and sizes, but they serve the same purpose. To hold the conductor at the correct height, and insulate the conductor from the ground.


Posts
Types of posts:
Wooden
Steel
Fiberglass

Even for a portable electric fence, it is sometimes useful to put a wooden post in for a corner that needs extra support. I like to use oak saplings about 4-6 inches in diameter for these but aspen wood or other softer woods will work temporarily (they may last 3-4 years before they rot and break off). A post 5 feet long buried in the ground a foot and a half will be just right to hold the nail-in insulator about 30-36 inches off the ground, about the right height for a cow's nose.

A steel post is quicker to install than a wooden one but will need an anchor steak to brace against the tension of the wire if it is too much for it. Two types I use are T posts and 3/8 re-bar cut four feet long. The T post works good for a slight curve in the fence line, if it isn't too sharp of a bend, or for a corner if it is braced. The re-bar works best for supporting the conductor between T posts. Use rod post insulators for the re-bar and T post insulators for the T posts.


I don't have much experience with fiberglass posts, but I have read that they tend to break off when the weather is cold and definitely aren't as stiff as metal ones.

Insulators

For the portable reel-based electric fence I'm describing, the only posts and insulators I use are the re-bar posts with their screw-on insulators. Of the different brands of insulators that I have tried out, I like the Red Snapp'r (Zareba) for their easy on and off design, but I like the latest ones from Premier for their ability to screw on tightest. Red Snapp'r insulators are guaranteed not to break, but I've seen them bend pretty far out of shape. Dare insulators are more solid feeling than Red Snapp'r, but they are harder to get on and off. I have never had an insulator break. Round corner insulators need a loop of stiff wire to attach them to the post and so far I like the Red Snapp'r brand because of the groove in the center that keeps the wire from slipping sideways. Sometime I would like to try the type of corner insulator that you don't have to thread the conductor through before attaching to the post. That would speed up the corners and work well for the portable set-up.


When a re-bar post has too much tension sideways (like at a corner - see picture above), I use a loop of twine and a small stake for support. A short piece of cattle panel bent over at the top or a pole barn spike bent over works for this.
To carry all my fence making supplies and the posts I use an old golf club bag slung across one shoulder and that helps me a lot. In the pocket in the side I keep extra support stakes and the voltage tester and more twine and assorted insulators. It speeds up setting out fence lines because I can take and replace a post from the bag with one hand while holding the reel of wire in the other.
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The picture is of a corner of the fence where the cows would come to get water on their way down the hill to the barn. The animals always have a path open for them to go back to the barn if they want to or if I need to herd them back before I milk. You can see that the grass on the left side of the picture hasn't been disturbed and is growing back after being grazed only once. There is a wire dividing that part off until it is ready to graze again.
Peter

8 comments:

David said...

Hi
Peter
I'm glad to see you are rotating your cattle. Do you move the cattle ever day? This may seem strange to you and I am still learning it too but if you give the herd only what they can eat in one day and then move them on to fresh forage your pasture will grow more grass. Also you must not let the cattle re-graze an area until a minimum of 90 days to accomplish this. Very strange but is being done and I am planing to do it too. Even stranger still in time your pasture will be come so heathy that you do not need to feed hay! By giving the grass a 90 day rest it will be high going into winter and palatable so the cows can eat it under the snow. There are farms that feed no hay in the Dakotas so do not think it cannot be done in you neck of the woods. This of course can not be done over night but the hay requirement of your animals will be greatly reduced. And the hay should be fed as much as possible out in the pasture during the winter so that the nutrients in the manure and urine are out in the field not up in the barn yard were it will inevitably be lost in the soil under the bedding. I do not say all this with experience but am on the learning side still my self.
Also I highly recommend you try out some fiberglass rods they work great! I have been using mine I got from Premier Fencing for 5 years now and have not had any problem with them nor had any brake in the winter only one has broke and that was because it was ran over. They cost a $1.25 and last a long time and do not get bent like rebar and a bundle of 20 is a lot lighter then steal too. Beware of look a likes at the farm stores I know someone that had some of these look a like posts and they said they tern to mush when they get wet. I would not be surprised if come winter they broke too!
~David
P.S. A good book to get, and one that I plan to ad soon to our library is Kick The Hay Habit by Jim Gerrish.

Peter said...

Hi David,

Yes, I do move the cows to a fresh pasture every day. This is my first year doing it regularly so I have a long way to go before the grass is built up thickly. Our pasture had been hayed for a long time without any fertilizer added so it is really depleted.

I'm not sure that we can hold off for 90 days before the second graze. That is pretty much our entire growing season! I am trying to watch the "blaze of growth" and graze the grass before maturity so that it begins new growth without being set back by grazing after it is over ripe. The rate that everything grows varies so much throughout the year that 90 days is probably ideal for some times but maybe not ideal for others. I would like to learn more about that.

I haven't read anything about not feeding hay in the winter and having the animals graze through the snow. That would be a good goal to aim for while improving pastures!

Have you read Joel Salatin's book "Sallad Bar Beef"?

I'm still at the beginning of the learning curve so I'd like to hear any ideas you have!

Thanks,
Peter

David said...

Yes I do have the book $alad Bar Beef. The 90 day rest has nothing to do with the how long the growing season is. To do it you need to have at least 90 paddocks and move the herd into one every day. For example lets say we have ten acres to graze we are going to be using only portable fencing so we must stake it out so we can see where to put the corner stakes and so we do not re graze an area too soon. Then we turn the cattle in and watch them are they eating everything down to the dirt in a days time? if they are this is good. Is there a hoof print on top of a hoof print? In other words have the cattle stepped on every square inch of ground? If not some thing is wrong we need to make the paddock smaller so that the cattle eat every thing in sight even the so called weeds. This May look like over grazing but is not. There is NO SUCH THING as over grazing but there is SUCH A THING as UNDER RESTING! So lets say we start the rotation in May we will not graze this paddock until August and then and then again in november and so on. We want the grass to grow high and go to seed so that it in time there will be no bare soil in between the parent grasses.
One thing you can do to build up your soil is let the cows into a small area at a time and leave them in there until the soil is worked up by their hoofs and the let them out and plant grain rye thickly in this area then let the cows back in to press the seeds down into the soil and then give it a 90 day rest and then let the cows graze it. I have let our cows graze rye before but have never planted it in this way but I'm planing to do it this year and see how it goes. You can also plant wheat or what ever is cheapest like oats. Sudan grass is also being used in this no till way. What I like about it is that there it no need for equipment that rusts, rots and does not reproduce. Let the cows do the work!
~David

Peter said...

Hi David,

What references can you point me to where I could find out more about what you are talking about?

The most nutrient dense forage for cows is harvested in the spring when the grass is young and growing fast and that is what we are trying to achieve by grazing it before it reaches maturity. Old growth is more stemmy and is not as palatable for the cow's rumen. By watching the cycle we can get the most out of a pasture while it naturally improves over a short time.

It seems to me that grazing down to the dirt would be hard on a cow. Forcing them to eat right down close to their manure would probably increase the possibility of parasites getting in also.

The only book I've read on the subject of rotational grazing was Mr. Salatin's book so I don't have much of an idea how other people are doing it differently.

Thanks!

Peter

David said...

HI
Cody Holmes of rockin'n H ranch is where I am getting the information on holistic approaches to gazing, and the book Grass Fed Cattle by Julius Ruechel. Letting the the cows graze down to the dirt will not give the cows parasites since they do not stay in a spot fore more then a day and since they will not graze this area until a minimum of 90 days this completely disrupts the parasite's life cycle. Plus the cows will not eat the grass where they have dropped manure even after a year they will not eat the grass completely down to the ground in this spot. It is true that the grass is more palatable in the late spring but a good grass genetic cow should keep back fat on her back to compensate for the less palatable grass of summer. Also by letting the grass get ahead of the cows and go to seed you eliminate drouth since the length of the grass stems is how deep the roots go. Most drouth in north America is self inflicted because we don't give the grass that 90 day rest!
Mr Salatin's way of grazing is different then Holistic Grazing that does not require a manure spreader and compost to build the soil but relies only on the cattle and there impact on the ground. Since I have changed my way of gazing our herd of sheep, goats, and cattle(smaller paddocks) I have seen an increase in the amount of manure. check out my new blog Healing The Land for a photo and more on this subject.
~David

Peter said...

Thanks David! I am starting to understand how holistic grazing would improve pasture. It won't be long I'm sure before we will add a few of the books you mentioned to our library too. There is probably a way to utilize both approaches to grazing and make it work even better!

It will be a while before we will be able to do without hay, so for now we will clean out the barns and fertilize the fields with it. My brother is working on plans for an "eggmobile" so pretty soon he will have the layer chickens out behind the cows to scratch the manure out into the ground and pick up the parasites and add their own manure.

Thanks for all your help!

Peter

Kris of Electric Fence said...

How many parts are there in this serires of posts Peter?

Peter said...

Hi Kris,

I think I only wrote part 1 and 2 and didn't write any more after that.

Thanks!

Peter